Dog Days

Dog Days

More in the news today are dogs, those four legged canine with super sensitive noses, who are doing things for Man unimaginable just twenty or thirty years ago. Bomb sniffing dog's abilities are heroic in many war stories made prominent on television news of the day. For at least the next decade or so, bomb sniffing dog stories will command many book shelves and movie screens seeking public support.

Domestically many local police departments adopt dogs to prove their worth working bomb scares and controlling crowds. Police dogs have proven themselves, time and time again, extremely valuable during crime searches and locating hidden drugs.

But today, today the ultimate pinnacle of high level sniffing has been announced. Trained dogs are able to sniff out ovarian cancer in women long before any visible signs of the cancer is evident to the afflicted women or to their doctor. Possibly, this high level sniffing will spread to other diseases difficult for our doctors to diagnose early.

But, there is something about dogs that one can only experience from a front porch. I spend a lot of time on my front porch watching my neighbors walk their dogs so the animals get exercise and also get enough waking to activate a movement in their dog's bowels. To my neighbors commitment for a clean town, I commend them all for carrying plastic bags that they use in picking up the poop the dogs needed to eliminate from their bodies.

I wonder what the canine world is thinking of their Master's Voice these days. From the beginning of dog time, which developed from Man's domestication of the wolf, dogs never experienced someone, not only observing their bowel movements closely, but quickly bagging their warm movements in plastic. Certainly, it is good that neighbors don't keep elephants as pets which would also need exercise by walking the streets. Dogs are broadening their horizons from their noses to just below their tails and the public needs to become more aware of "Man's Best Friend" and continue to treat dogs as a valuable ally.

Ronald C. Downie